ENGLISHTOWN, N.J.—Antron Brown and his David Powers-owned Matco Tools team put on an impressive show at the New Jersey native’s hometown track. The two-time Top Fuel winner powered his Matco Tools rail to a quarterfinal finish at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park.
One day after earning his 13th career pole and second No. 1 qualifying award in Top Fuel with a pass of 4.502-seconds on Friday evening at Raceway Park, Brown edged five-time Top Fuel winner J.R. Todd in the first round of eliminations before narrowly falling to five-time series champion Tony Schumacher in the second round.
Squaring off against Todd for the first time this season, Brown used a Lee Beard tune-up to clock the quickest pass of the opening round of eliminations. Todd got the jump at the start in his blue and white dragster, but Beard gave Brown the horsepower he needed to drive around and score the win in the Matco Tools/iLocate GPS rail. Brown earned a run of 4.567 seconds at 322.73 mph to advance beyond the opening round for the 10th time in 11 races this season.
Paired up against the Alan Johnson-tuned U.S. Army dragster for the fourth time this season, the drivers used solid reaction times as Brown blasted the Matco Tools/Go Fast car to a performance of 4.621 at 316.75. Schumacher was slightly quicker at 4.618 at 319.07 to earn the trip to the semifinals. Brown now has a round-record of 19-9 this season in the Matco/Valvoline dragster.
“We’re disappointed to lose to Tony (Schumacher), but he’s the man to beat for the championship,” Brown said. “Overall, we had a phenomenal weekend with the consistency of our car and how fast it was. We were the car to beat here at Englishtown. Alan Johnson just stepped up to the plate. We’re going to come out at Norwalk (Ohio) swinging hard.”
The next NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series event is the Second annual Summit Racing Equipment Nationals at Summit Racing Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio. Brown was a three-time finalist at National Trail Raceway near Columbus, winning in 1999.
| 
|